


The Price Of Being Kasumi

by Valentine20xx



Series: Finding A New You [1]
Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: F/F, Non-Sexual Bondage, Non-Sexual Kink, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 23:01:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20478893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine20xx/pseuds/Valentine20xx
Summary: When Kasumi wanders off the beaten path, and finds herself in a adult supplies store, She accepts a simple wager, to spend one week in total isolation bondage as a way to get rid of the stress of her lifestyle.What this leads to, however, is a complete rethinking of who Kasumi Tendouis, one that, years later, will change several lives...





	The Price Of Being Kasumi

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Ranma Nibbunoichi © Rumiko Takahashi, and is used without permission.
> 
> This story nugget was caused by a thought about how stressful the situation in Ranma Nibbunoichi can be, as well as the fact shibari is used as a therapy tool, due to the lack of a need to do anything but listen to the creak of the ropes, allowing a busy mind to focus on things that normally would be lost in the clutter. It’s that fact, that you can find comfort in isolation, that will drive the early plot.

There was a saying. Everything had a price. As Kasumi Tendou accepted the ceremonial urn with her mother’s ashes inside, She had thought that she’d already paid enough in losing her beloved mother. It began with her father, crippled mentally by grief from her death, stepping away from the highly lucrative martial arts lessons he’d become well known for, his hopes to bring honour and prestige to the Tendo School of Anything Goes, also known less politely as the School Of Indiscriminate Grappling, forgotten as he quickly settled into a much more sedate job as a member of Furinkan’s civic council, a job Nabiki was eyeing up for herself when he retired.  
The whole fact that her sister was looking at it as her future career prospect told her how much she’d lost more than one parent that day.

Next came her own losses. She had been, up until recently, one of a teacher’s favourite kinds of student, a ‘child prodigy’, her life at Furinkan High resembling one of the success stories she saw on TV, her teachers waxing lyrical about how she could just walk into Todai, ask for a course, put down her grades and get in, no questions asked, and her future career prospects were as wide as the ocean. Kasumi had turned down the raft of scholarships that had come when she’d turned down her first choice courses, citing prolonged family issues.  
When they asked, she’d told them categorically that it was not… quite… financial, but that her family needed her ‘for the time being’, something that stretched from days, to weeks, to months… and then became largely indefinite. Even she could see now that it was a fool’s dream to hope for a respite, and her bright future was no longer possible. Her father would never truly recover. As she looked at her latest culinary masterpiece, she resisted the urge to slump. She could be on a cookery course, with it being one of those she’d shortlisted, with a chance at a career in a cafe or restaurant, with the amount of work she put into one of the meals she made for her family, but her family…  
They barely even noticed her expertise anymore, except for when Akane got near cooking implements with the intent to copy her big sister’s incredible skill in the kitchen, and that was only since everyone else had tried to quietly get the youngest Tendo out of the kitchen before she made one of her famously over-spicy ‘meals’, a dish that sometimes verged on a non-lethal poison.  
Akane was the only one in the household who could actually eat her own cooking and not notice anything out of the ordinary with it. Kasumi suspected that Akane didn’t even _ have _ taste buds anymore, or even a proper sense of smell, thanks to the massive amounts of strong spices she used. Due to this, she and the others knew the family doctor rather too well, and she didn’t want to rock the boat and deal with his reactions to being in her presence in any way other than brushing it off as him just being silly.  
Kasumi sighed. Her worst kitchen disaster had been the fire in the pan when she was six, and she had gotten much better. She worried about what Akane might do when she was older, and didn’t have her mother to tell her why the kitchen almost ended up on fire...

That fateful morning, during one of her frankly hedonistic days of free time, since Akane and Nabiki were at school and her father was busy with a meeting, her distracted meandering had brought her to accidentally walk into what was clearly an adult supplies store. Her head swam at the smell of freshly cured leather, as she looked upon the racks of suits, as well as the display cases of masks, cuffs and collars. She’d never even touched anything like this, even in passing. Something like this would not be ‘proper’...  
Which didn’t explain why she was examining a simple plaque caught her eye near to the display case holding the cuffs, stating ‘Please note that we cannot supply these cuffs to anyone with a pre-existing criminal record, or known association with someone who may well have a criminal record. This is due to the fact some cuffs use a ‘skeleton key’ which is normally issued only to the police force. Even upon approval, all keys are registered in case of loss, theft or malicious intent, and will be traced back to the original owner.’  
“So, whenever the handcuffs look like they’re police issue?” She wondered aloud, hiding her thoughts, considering the several outstanding warrants that Happosai had against him and wondering if that would affect her, if she considered applying for one of these keys. Only an idiot wouldn’t have noticed that Happosai had gotten sanctuary within the former guest bedroom while he was still around, her father having moved back into his unmarried bedroom, while Kasumi had moved into her mother’s room.  
“More often than not, they are pretty much the same cuffs,” A woman’s voice stated, as a tall raven-haired woman moved to effectively surround Kasumi with her presence, “It’s ten times cheaper to have a universal key, and a lot safer when a key is damaged on duty… So, What’s your name, little one?”  
“Tendou Kasumi,” She replied, the woman tapping something out on a palmtop, “I wasn’t...”  
“You’d not be able to get a key issued, straight away anyway...” The woman declared, having found the right information, “You don’t have any criminal record yourself, but… Thought so, Soun Tendou, three daughters, there you are… has a criminal record as a known accessory to a man with the apparent alias of Happosai, no other names known,”  
“Ah yes, the erstwhile sensei of his… former school…” Kasumi sighed, her cheeks burning at how she had been right about Happosai, before asking, “Why were you, even before I...”  
“We had a man come in a few months back, claimed the cuffs were for the usual reasons…” The woman stated, “His key was found a day later in the hands of his brother who escaped some rather heavy charges. Since then, we do a cursory check before we even let someone into one of the cases, and we don’t use glass with those cases, so you can’t just break in,”  
“What I’m looking isn’t something this store sells...” She sighed, “I’m trying so hard to keep my house, my life in order, but all it does is give me less and less time to be myself and a very fake smile...”  
“Most people find the answer to that kind of quest at the bottom of a sake bottle, and end up drinking more and more until they just sit around and get increasingly drunk...” The woman sighed, Kasumi slumping.  
“My father’s sake bills are the worst part of the house budget...” Kasumi replied bitterly. The woman looked sheepish, clearly not having totally intended to make such an embarrassing comparison.  
“You might think that I don’t sell it, but I bet you that you think all of this is about restraint, not release… You give yourself up to me for one week, let me give you a tutorial on the basics of what this store sells, and, here’s my wager… I bet you that you’ll find the answer in my back room to all your questions, even those you haven’t even asked yet,” The woman declared, Kasumi blinking owlishly, “You spend one week, secured back there, no-one will know…”  
“I can’t really give up that long…” Kasumi offered, rolling on her heels.  
“Look, You want to give up all those stresses, all those things that are holding you down. You spend an afternoon here, then you go back, and it won't have just vanished…” The woman offered, “And if you don’t find what you’re looking for, it’s a week’s vacation…”  
She looked at the various items, almost wanting to deny the offer, however strange it was, but slumped. It was the best offer she’d got in years, however odd it sounded. She decided she’d try it. “OK, One week at your mercy, but I doubt this will work,” She countered.

A few minutes later, her clothes were in a bag, as she pulled on a rubber body stocking,with anything that could identify her as ‘Tendou Kasumi’ erased; as she picked up the gimp suit next to her, while marvelling at the look of the inner suit on her body. “So, if I get scared, or want out, I just tap the side of the box, and you’ll let me out?”  
“No problem,” The woman stated, holding up a bag like Kasumi had seen in the hospital, “I’ll be fitting you with a catheter, and some other things to keep you hydrated and such,”  
"Perfectly safe..." Kasumi mused, sliding her legs into the gimp suit.

An hour later, she was nothing more than a squirming folded up parcel, being lowered into a padded, soundproofed trunk, and tubes were screwed into place for the long term internment of the anonymous leather figure, with the last thing that she heard, other than her own breathing; being the trunk slamming shut, followed by some faint clicking sounds, which she later learned were locks.  
The following hours were surreal, as her mind meandered and made itself busy in random and confusing ways, as Kasumi found herself disconnected from reality; having nothing to do _ but _ sit and think in silence, while contemplating the mysteries of the universe. The things she needed to do every day got forgotten, as her body relaxed, her mind relaxed, and it was like one very very long and comfortable nap...  
She then felt the hood being unzipped again, leaving her blinking in confusion, especially as she read the date and time on the phone that was handed to her while she slowly remembered how to move her body and realised that, in her period of deep thought, she had completely missed the week flying past effectively without her and felt, strangely, so light and relaxed...  
“Moshi Moshi… Sorry, I lost track of time dealing with something...” She stated, Nabiki laughing.  
“Wow! You sound… well rested. So, When’s the big day?” Nabiki asked, “No-one sounds that good unless they’ve got something pretty damn big off their shoulders… and I doubt you’d just sleep for a week and forget about everything...”  
“Nabiki! I wasn’t with Ono-hakase…” Kasumi replied, realising that she _ had _ actually effectively slept for a week, “Why would you think something so perverted?”  
She then jammed her free hand in her mouth. No, it wasn’t that. It was something even more kinky, as she started to slide off the gimp suit after carefully sealing the catheter tube. Nabiki wouldn’t understand that her secret to a good rest was to be put into sensory deprivation for an entire week, meaning she had been given time to just _ not _ do anything. For that entire period, the outside world had seemed to forget about Tendou Kasumi, and she’d loved it.  
“So, when will you be back?” Nabiki asked, and Kasumi paused, considering the clothing she was still mostly in, and slightly slumped. Back at home, she was looking forward to a pile of yellowing unused college applications, a kitchen which was no longer an escape and a life which was wearing into her spirit every single day…  
Hell, she could also hear the stress in her sister’s voice, a lot clearer than when she’d heard her before, maybe since she could tell, from hearing herself. Finally, she realised the fact that she’d lost the wager with the shopkeeper, not just slightly, but completely and utterly. She’d not even noticed even her own planned cut-off point for getting out of her sensory isolation shoot by, and when she woke up, she’d not really been ready to do so. And she was shocked that, in some ways, she’d already known that she would.  
“When will I be back?” She started, then, with a look towards the woman who had given her the greatest gift she could have ever got, a whole week which just shot by, as the world forgot that she was needed and made her decision, stating simply to her sister, “I’ll let you know when I’m ready...”

Once she had hung up, she looked towards the woman who owned the store which she had initially considered turning down, looking at the things that had terrified her a week ago, but now signified a brand new beginning for her! The option she had just turned down would have potentially turned her into nothing but a faceless servant to people who stopped caring about her own wants and needs, namely her father and youngest sister.  
At least, when she was a faceless servant here, there would be some give-and-take from both sides. A small smile graced her lips as she suddenly thought of seeing Nabiki locked up inside the padded box she’d just left, effectively fast asleep, watching over her as the middle Tendo sister went through several days without the constant need to stay in control of things.

“So then, when are you leaving?” The woman asked, Kasumi getting up, with slight difficulty, as she gradually settled back into the real world, before waving towards the folded clothes she'd arrived in.  
“That’s… not me. Not any more...” She sighed, before kneeling down and bowing lightly, “Teach me, sempai. Teach me what all of this is, and let me see if this is me instead...”  
“Oh, if you insist, but some of this is far from as liberating...” The woman purred, running a hand under Kasumi’s chin. She was so much more beautiful after getting rid of all that stress. A few more lessons, and she’d make any girl a beautiful lover.  
“I’m already liberated enough, I want to know how else the things around me work,” She replied, beckoning towards the bag of clothes, “That person there, She’s no longer me. Just be gentle as you make me into what I was always meant to be...”  
“I will always be gentle with you… I’ll just need one thing from you. A single word, A safe word...” The woman stated as she took hold of the hood, and returned Kasumi to the now-blissful darkness.

It was a different Kasumi who worked in the store for the following couple of weeks, and did various odd jobs, sometimes literally odd, for her new mentor; from the girl who’d first walked into the adult store.  
Even when she stood, dressed in a rubber maid’s uniform, in the small kitchen, it felt so much better than her home. The simple meals she did for her teacher were complimented, her work was judged in a positive light and she always knew when she had made a mistake.  
Punishments were rare, but they were an object lesson and were not always painful. Every time she fell into old habits, light swats with a crop brought her back to reality, but the denial of the things she had come to like doing with her teacher was a more common and effective punishment.  
The items of clothing that Kasumi decided to wear, both on her own time and during their lessons, gradually became tighter and more figure hugging; with more than one customer who saw the owner’s new assistant had asked if she was taken and the owner had simply stated that she was not for sale.

The most eye-opening incident was when she was taken into a small studio beside her bedroom, and prompted to ‘give them a show’. At first, she began to retreat into her old, shy wallflower mentality; only for her mentor to give her a few gentle nudges. And soon, she found herself enjoying herself, sometimes forgetting that the camera was even there.  
As she played things up for the camera, helped the shop’s owner pick which pictures joined the movies on an adult website and gradually gained a following of fans, she noticed that the money she was given at the end of each week had gradually changed from a slim envelope to a far thicker, more substantial one, eventually becoming a cheque which Kasumi lodged to a new bank account she set up, under the stage name she used on the website and for the magazines her ‘manager’ sold some to:  
Arashi Nami...

She had to laugh at the fact that she’d known that Nabiki had sold some less-than-flattering pictures of those female students and teachers who’d gathered the most interest to the boys at Furinkan High, but they were definitely nothing compared to the ones that Kasumi had been selling herself, and had not even made a fraction of what she did in that small room.  
Just one of Kasumi’s photo shoots made Nabiki’s poorly framed pictures look like they were only worth the few hundred yen that the middle Tendo sold them for, only being enough to pay for the camera film that they were shot on, while Kasumi… She made several times that as her share _after_ the costs for the film and equipment were taken into consideration, and she used a brand new digital camera, not a cheap manual one.  
She knew now that the old Kasumi was dead. Oh, she’d still kept her old clothes, for keeping up appearances when she finally did go home to the Tendo dojo; but the kinds of things that she did now, she knew her old self would blush heavily and try not to even think about them.

The most telling incident came when she’d cashed in her latest commission cheque, the banker happy to oblige, and she found herself wandering into Dr. Ono’s surgery, very deliberately in one of her newer outfits.  
“Excuse me...” She asked, “Can I speak to Dr. Ono?”  
“Kasu… mi...” He began, while blushing and stuttering intensely, before Kasumi pushed his mouth shut with a single finger, then smirking.  
“Whatever you thought could happen between us...” She stated, “I came to let you know I will be changing the family surgery. I’d felt that the doctor was being most unprofessional.”  
She then turned around and left, as the full impact of what she’d just said hit home. She’d, without stating it outright, effectively dumped him. And it had felt damn good to do so!  
As of now, she was a free woman... even if she really wanted to be anything but free...


End file.
